Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Portraits

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The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Portrait Project is a hybrid art and medical intervention designed to improve patient care and team dynamics by humanizing the alienating appearance of PPE, through warm, smiling, single-use headshot portraits fixed to the outside of a healthcare worker's PPE.

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The PPE Portrait Project was created by Mary Beth Heffernan in response to the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project gained more momentum at medical centres around the world. The Intensive Care Unit Bridge Program (www.icubridgeprogram.org) team reached out to Mary Beth Heffernan for her guidance in implementing this initiative in Montreal ICUs.

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The purpose of these portraits is to:

  1. Reduce patient isolation and fear
  2. Increase trust and connection with the healthcare worker 
  3. Increase patient awareness of who is taking care of them
  4. Humanize healthcare workers and increase team dynamics

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In short, by adding portraits to a healthcare provider's PPE, we can bring some much needed expression, compassion, and humanistic connection to an otherwise scary and overwhelming situation.

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Updated July 22, 2020 at 11:03 PM
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ICU Bridge Program

We target the mental health of Intensive Care Unit staff, families, and patients through university volunteers.
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